U.S. academic says reading best way to boost vocabulary 


An American education expert says improving one’s reading ability is the quickest and easiest way to learn English as a second language.

Reading offers the easiest way, compared to writing and speaking, to be exposed to diverse vocabulary and usage of the language, said Malbert Smith, president and co-founder of MetaMetrics, a U.S.-based education research group.

“But to improve your reading skill, knowing your reading level and practice with (the) right material is important,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Smith was in Korea earlier this month to give advice on English education at a conference organized by the Korea Association of Teachers of English.

MetaMetrics, set up 28 years ago, is widely known for its educational tool, the Lexile Framework for Reading. The scale of reading ability is a scientific method designed to match readers of all ages with books, articles and other reading resources, according to Smith.

“We built a computer algorithm to analyze every word in a book and give it our Lexile scale. The lower the Lexile, the easier to read, and the higher Lexile, the harder to read,” he said.

The purpose of Lexile scale, he said, is matching the texts’ complexity with individuals’ reading ability, and helping readers find “properly challenging” reading materials.

“What we’re trying to do with our technology is to help teachers, parents and students find the right challenge to continue growing the reader’s literacy skills.”

MetaMetrics’s reading index is currently widely used in the United States with more than 30 million students across 50 states being assessed with it.

MetaMetrics has a partnership with Interpark, the Korean online-retailer, which currently uses the Lexile measure for labeling English publications on sale at its online store.

“Learning the English language, like any skill, takes time and practice. But practice does not make you perfect ― perfect practice makes you perfect,” he said.

“So as opposed to just telling Korean students read more, telling them to read more at their level is more important,” he added.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)